Many of our clients have end of year deadlines for projects. One of our newest clients contacted us with an unprecedented challenge – could we upgrade them from 32-bit Documentum 6.5 SP1 to 64-bit Documentum 7.0 Patch 12 by early December given availability of certain funds. This post will present the project and some best practices in regards to the upgrade. ... [Continue Reading]
Supersized Documentum Migrations and Upgrades Two Billion Documents and Counting
Two weeks ago we completed several of the largest Documentum migrations and upgrades we’ve ever seen. With short outage windows, we helped plan and support our client’s migration of their Documentum systems from a data center in the southeast US to the Rockies while simultaneously upgrading the repositories from Documentum 6.5 to 6.7 SPx. Altogether the repositories contained over 2 billion documents, several TB of file server and multiple Centera devices; as well as over 425,000 ActiveWizard ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrades – Handling eSignatures in Documentum 6.6+
Starting in Documentum Content Server 6.6, using the eSignature mechanism uses iText rather than PDF Fusion to create the electronic signature page. Documentum made this move to iText in order to be able to support creating eSignatures when the content server was running on a Unix/Linux environment, which was previously unsupported. Using the eSignature mechanism still requires a TCS (Trusted Content Services) license from EMC. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrade to 6.7 – a simple approach
Back in July, we wrote a lessons learned post regarding upgrading from Documentum 6.5 to Documentum 6.7. We have a client that recently completed, by himself, a Documentum upgrade from 6.5 SP3 to 6.7 SP1. While TSG often assists clients in the Documentum upgrade process, some clients are very capable of performing upgrades on their own if they chose a simple approach. This post will share some of the client’s thoughts on the upgrade and how the combination of TSG products as well as good ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum 6.5 to 6.7 Upgrade Lessons Learned
TSG recently assisted a client with upgrading their Documentum 6.5 environment to 6.7. Products included Content Server, xPlore, Business Process Manager (BPM), Content Transformation Services (ADTS, AVTS, MTS), DA, Webtop, Records Manager, Retention Policy Services (RPS), Archive Services for Reports (ASR), and TaskSpace. The client also runs TSG’s High Performance Interface (HPI) and OpenContent products. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum, Mobile and IMAP – A standard and open source approach for email archiving and mobile access
TSG has started initial research and development on an alternative approach for email archiving and mobile access with Documentum, based on a client project that utilized Alfresco IMAP. In prepping for our client briefing next week, we thought we would share our initial thoughts on an IMAP and Documentum approach. ... [Continue Reading]
EMC World 2012 – May 23rd – What’s Next? ECM Documentum Family Roadmap – Aaron Aubrecht
With a slight Vegas headache, squeezed into the Documentum Family Roadmap session this morning. This post will present the details. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum 6.7 Upgrades and Hardware Changes
With Documentum 6.5 SP3 going out of support this year (August 31, 2012), we’re running several Documentum upgrade projects for clients this quarter. Unlike in the past where upgrades promised fantastic new functionality, this round of upgrades is trending more towards maintaining supported configurations and upgrading to new hardware. In addition, rather than simply upgrading the OS, companies are virtualizing servers and rolling out 64-bit hardware wherever possible. ... [Continue Reading]
Debugging Documentum Java Method Server (JMS) Code in Eclipse
One of the big challenges with working with Documentum is debugging code that is deployed to the Content Server’s Java Method Server (JMS). Deploying code updates to the JMS can be tedious because it the JMS is typically on a remote server for developers, and it usually takes a long time to restart when code changes are deployed. The Java Method Server is also shared by all repositories on the content server, so continuously restarting the server for debugging can impact other repositories. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Webtop 5.3 running on Documentum Content Server 6.x
We stumbled across a pretty vague reference in the cross-product dependency guide for Documentum 6.7 SP1 (on page 245) for Webtop (emphasis ours) “Note: Documentum Collaborative Services 5.3 DAR is installed with Content Server 6.7 SP1 repository so Webtop 5.3 & 5.3 SPx will work with Content Server 6.7 SP1. If Documentum Collaborative Services (formerly Documentum Collaborative Edition) 6.7 SP1 DAR is installed with Content Server 6.7 SP1 repository, Webtop 6.7 SP1 is required.” ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum , Weblogic and DM_DFC_E_BAD_CLASS error
We had a client last week struggle with a DM_DFC_E_BAD_CLASS when deploying Webtop and our OpenAnnotate product along with our DFC based OpenContent. The issue arises from the CLASSPATH having the file "dfc.jar" added to it. We thought we would document the thoughts here for other client’s reference. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Client for Outlook (DCO) – A cautionary tale in regards to message formats and object types – comment if you have experience to share.
We have two clients that are struggling with the combination of email formatting as well as the Documentum Client for Outlook (DCO) regarding format and different releases. TSG doesn’t see a ton of DCO or email implementations so we thought we would share our client's experiences here. Please comment if you have any DCO experience to share. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Webtop Upgrades 6.5 to 6.7 Considerations
With the support deadlines on the Webtop 6.5 platform being August 31st, 2012, many Documentum users are considering an upgrade to the current 6.7 platform which is supported through April 29th, 2015. While EMC has released 6.6 and 6.7 as minor releases with very little new functionality, it is worth noting the differences when planning an upgrade. This post will discuss changes from Webtop 6.5 to 6.7. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Foundation Services – What Happened?
Unveiled with D6 in 2007, Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) was the service-oriented replacement for the Documentum Foundation Class (DFC) and the Microsoft specific Primary Interop Assembly (PIA) including lingering components of the original Documentum API still embedded within the DFC. With the announcement at EMC World that the new development environment will be a REST based API built on the DFC, Documentum customers might be wondering about the future of DFS. This post will discuss ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum and Momentum EMC World 2011 – Recap
With the conference officially ending Thursday, this post will summarize our posts for the week along with our overall thoughts. ... [Continue Reading]
EMC World – 2011 – Day Three – ECM Strategy and Roadmap – 2011/2012 – Mark Arbour – Head of Product Management – ECM Applications
Attended another roadmap session focused on next 18 months. This post will try to summarize and present TSG thoughts. ... [Continue Reading]
EMC World – Day 3 – IIG Client/UI Framework Strategy and Roadmap – Jeetu Patel and Rohit Ghai
Attended Jeetu and Rohit presentation this morning. This post will discuss TSG’s thoughts around the roadmap. ... [Continue Reading]
EMC World 2011 – Day 2 – Jeetu Patel – Keynote
This post will highlight thoughts from Jeetu Patel’s (Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer – IIG) morning keynote. ... [Continue Reading]
Day 1 – EMC World 2011 – Afternoon Sessions – Architecture and Product Roadmap
Attended three good sessions this afternoon. First one was EMC Documentum Architecture Overview – Part 1 by Jeroen van Rotterdam, Second was Rick Devenuti Keynote – last presentation was John McCormick “What’s Next” Product Roadmap. This post will try to summarize the three presentations with some thoughts on the overall product direction. ... [Continue Reading]
EMC World – 2011 – Day One – Morning Highlights – Web Services
After a rough flight and hotel screwup, finally got into the Venetian early this morning. We are trying to post fast and furious so apologize for any spelling errors or initial thoughts. Today’s post will highlight some of the interesting sessions in the morning and focus on announcement around Web Services. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Workflow Manager, BPM, and Licensing
We just finished a new 6.6 Documentum install for a client and ran into something slightly unusual. During the installation, we were not able to install a workflow template from an existing archive, a routine install activity. In the past, we could always move workflow templates between repositories using Application Builder and Installer and create new templates with Workflow Manager. While Documentum Application Builder and Application Installer became unsupported with the release of ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Search – How to get around the user request of “I just want a search like Google”
Often times Documentum users, frustrated with Webtop Search or Advanced Search will request “Can we just have a Google Search?”. This post will provide input to Documentum developers on how to best address this ongoing request. While this post is specifically focused on Documentum developers, lessons learned about interface design apply to our Alfresco and SharePoint readers as well. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Webtop Customizations – What should you do next?
Webtop Customizations are a consistent source of concern for internal IT. Concerns range from level of development effort to upgrade cost and long-term support. Specific concerns include: Business changes and customizations must be redone when Webtop versions change Internal resource staffing and the need to retain Documentum programmers Documentum support for new releases This post will address our thoughts on what clients are doing to either mitigate concerns in regards to customizing ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum 6.6 Upgrade – Character Encoding Fail – Part II
This week we are urgently reminding clients, as part of their upgrade evaluation, to look seriously for character encoding issues in regards to their current Documentum content and the affect on upgrades. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Retention Policy Services – Thoughts on Performance
TSG recently worked with a client evaluating EMC’s Retention Policy Services (RPS) product. For those unfamiliar with RPS, RPS is used for automating content retention and disposition, while also allowing for holds that prevent disposition. Additional information can be found on the EMC website here: http://www.emc.com/products/detail/software2/retention-policy-services.htm The client liked many of the features of the product and its user interface (which is very similar to Webtop). One of ... [Continue Reading]
